New To Reefing

curly747

Member
Aug 13, 2013
168
57
Curl Curl
What Sand Do I Use ?
I started my first marine tank about 2 years ago. After some research i bought some very fine sand and used that as my substrate. I think its called oolite or sugar sized in some shops. Anyway it was extremely cloudy when i first put it in but after a while it settled down and looked great. Only problem was that when i bought a few power heads it started getting blown around quite a bit. And then when i added coral the sand was getting blown onto the coral. So to fix the problem i bought some crushed coral which is maybe 3-8 mm in size. Its called Florida crushed coral. I put a small layer of that on top. Problem solved ! No more sand being blown about on my coral. Problem is after a while i am finding that the crushed coral attracts a lot of algae growth. I have started to siphon out the crushed coral to leave the original sand bed which is underneath. Looks great again but now i am getting sand blown around. Just wondering if someone can help me know the best sand size / brand i can buy to put small layer on top of the fine sand. I am thinking 2mm might be about right but haven't seen anything that size. I have seen seen sand 0.5 - 1.5 mm. Is that the best option? I have also seen 1.25-1.95mm. I would prefer not to make another mistake.
 

Agent M

Member
Oct 21, 2011
3,536
1,586
Melbourne
What are you trying to achieve with the substrate?

If its a deep sand bed then that does need to be left undisturbed for the most part and if you get algae on the surface then you need to focus on solutions for the source of the algae.

If what you are wanting to achieve is simply for aesthetics, then I would remove the sugar fine sand entirely and replace it with a shallow layer of a larger substrate. Even the Florida crushed coral, and whenever you do a water change, siphon the substrate to remove any wastes that have built up - this will turn the substrate over and should (should) prevent algae from taking hold.
 

curly747

Member
Aug 13, 2013
168
57
Curl Curl
What are you trying to achieve with the substrate?
Thanks for the reply. I guess its really just for aesthetics. Maybe initially i thought the sand bed was important to me for filtration but i think i rely more on the skimmer and rocks for that. I have very rarely siphoned the crushed coral and it sounds like i need to if i was to put some more back in. Why would you remove the sugar fine sand? That would be quite a job.
 

Savage Henry

Member
Feb 2, 2015
653
254
I was using the Pisces 0.5-1.0mm coral sand but removed it as I was going to relocate my tank.

The sand is light and easily blown around, so when I was using it with two Tunze wavemakers I just made sure I didn't direct the current directly at the sand.

I'm a big fan of using coral sand and reckon it helps stabilise the tank.

When I do eventually get to set up my new tank I will be using the coral sand again.

In terms of size, I have read that it is far better to get the smallest grain size possible as it prevents detrius building up in the lower levels (as large grained sand allows stuff to fall down deeper into the sand bed).

The stuff that you have sounds great. Could you try directing the wavemakers to prevent your problem?